Posted on 02/27/2019 3:56:59 PM PST by robowombat
Military draft ruling a 'blow' to gender equality
NASHVILLE (BP) -- A federal judge in Texas has ruled the all-male military draft unconstitutional, a move that some Baptist leaders say is a blow to gender equality, not a win for it.
Judge Gray H. Miller of Federal District Court in the Southern District of Texas said earlier this week that the "time has passed" for debate on whether women belong in the military. In 2015 the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in service, making them eligible for combat. It follows that if women are as eligible for combat as men, then legally they are also just as eligible for a draft, Miller ruled.
No one has been conscripted into military service since the draft was discontinued in 1973 -- in the time since, military service has been completely voluntary. But draft registration was reinstated in 1981 through Selective Service and, since then, men have been required to register on their 18th birthday or face the possibility of being denied benefits like government jobs or student loans. Once they register, they can be drafted up to age 25.
In Miller's official opinion, women should be asked to do the same, then called up to fight in the event of a draft.
His ruling in the case -- brought by the National Coalition For Men, a men's rights group, and two men who argued against the fairness of an all-male draft -- is declaratory, not an injunction that Selective Service has to follow.
Mike Whitehead, a former captain of the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps who serves as general counsel for the Missouri Baptist Convention, said Congress still has time to address the issue and eventually the Supreme Court may have to weigh in.
The American culture has long "valued women for their special roles in society but has not historically compelled them to fight our wars," Whitehead said. "Treating women differently in ways they are different is not invidious discrimination. Myopic views of sexual equality above all else lose sight of other cultural values we should fight to preserve."
R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said on his podcast "The Briefing" the Christian worldview is that the genders are equal -- equally made in the image of God.
"But equal does not mean same, and when it comes to male and female, it also means different," he said. "That is why a biblical understanding of the relationship between men and women and the proper roles of men and women is described as complementarianism -- complementary roles when you look at men and at women, not sameness."
Mohler noted that the 2015 decision to allow women to fight voluntarily was "a great blow to human dignity in seeking to erase any distinction between men and women."
"If equality means sameness, then we will have the absolute meltdown of all moral meaning," he said.
At the time of Miller's ruling, an advisory panel -- the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service -- was in the process of weighing whether or not women should be included in any future drafts.
"Personally, I don't think we will remain with the status quo," Joe Heck, the chairman of the commission, told USA Today in January. "But where we end up on the spectrum is yet to be determined."
Mohler said in any event, "we are about to determine whether the American people are ready, not only for their sons to be registered for the draft, but for their daughters to be equally registered, and if equally registered, then equally ready to be called up for involuntary combat duty."
Grace Thornton is a writer based in Birmingham, Ala.
While I agree with Mohler’s point, the social contract as it stands now does not.
You can’t have it both ways. Either everyone is treated the same or they aren’t. If they are to be treated the same, then that means in every respect. Therefore if men can be drafted, so can women.
If people don’t like that system, then revert to the system where each gender was expected assume certain responsibilities, certain authorities needed to carry out those responsibilities, and the *privileges* that go with those.
Secularism elevates pragmatism to the level of nihilism. It is profoundly present oriented and has little interest in the consequences for future society. An attitude summed up by a lib coworker, Ah, do what you want, who cares? Screw worrying about the future. Those people will figure something out or get kicked in the ass by life. I’ll be dead then. Could care less.
How, in their warped mind, is treating men and women the same a “blow” to gender equality!
“How, in their warped mind, is treating men and women the same a “blow” to gender equality!”
Well, women want all the rights, but none of the responsibility. That’s modern feminism.
We have a draft in Israel. I served. My wife served. My daughter is serving now.
She’s a combat medic, like her mother.
The country is so divided that I don't see how we could ever field an army of conscripts. And as someone who recently signed my third re-enlistment, I wouldn't want to serve with a bunch of angry malcontents.
If a war is so unpopular that we have to force people to fight it, maybe it's not a war we need to be fighting. There won't ever be a war that unites the country against a common enemy. Half the country today would be cheering for the other side.
Agreed. It would be crazy to draft the snowflakes into the army. Lesbian battalion. Gender confused battalion or the homo battalion? How about the emotional sensitive battalion. Prozac division.
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
I don’t think it’s a blow to gender equality. It could backfire and be a blow for gender equality.
Achieving “gender equality” is not the mission of the U.S. military.
Not to mention the "Antifa" battalion, the "I voted for Ilhan Omar" battalion, the "President Trump is a M-F'er" battalion, the "Blame America" battalion, and on and on.
I don't want to be fighting next to any of these people.
For a handy example, see early-mid 1940s China. The Communist and Nationalist factions ceased hostilities just enough for both to focus on ejecting the Japanese. We actually sent troops into China after Japan's surrender, in hopes of getting that truce to "stick". That was a short-lived effort.
The big question I have is, in a draft will women be forced into combat arms?
Since it is now accepted by all of our overlords that there is no difference between men and women, there should be no reason to prevent them from being in combat arms.
Feminism is not turning out as planned, transgenderism in a few months is destroying decades of effort and all that wonderful Title IV stuff. Now ladies will have to register for the draft.
You’ve come a long way, baby.
Why wouldn’t they be conscripted into combat arms? Your reasoning is completely correct.
There will be no conscription ever again. Wars are too large and violent. They are also too fast.
By the time they got the old bingo drums out, the war will be over and we will all be looking for food.
I don’t want our brave volunteers army to have to even try to assimilate the general population. It would be a disaster to our very brave, selfless, professional military.
Thx for your service. Thx for your profession. I am an engineer trying to give the .mil good systems. We have plenty of freaks causing issues. You can’t afford the freaks.
Thx again. If I can help develop a better system then I have helped but you carry the load. For that - god bless.
The mission of the US military is to kill the enemy and break all his toys. "Gender equality" detracts from that mission.
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